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GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH

These are inimitable and unreconstructed journeys in which a small number of participants join intrepid geographer, traveller, photographer, and writer Victor Paul Borg on one of his inimitable journeys that largely take place at the geographic frontiers. It would be a real research trip, including professional photography, that is conducted to procure material on the given subject or destination – this material is then used in print and in the creation of new tours for Pepper Mountains. These journeys take place in emerging or remote destinations that are outstanding for their intact nature and culture, and normally these kind of journeys are built on a theme. 

By joining Victor on one of his odysseys, you get to experience the classical rewards of travel that drives travel writers – a sense of discovery and unpredictability, and a chance to view a different part of the world before it’s subsumed by the homogeneity of globalisation. You learn lessons that you will carry with you all your life, and you’ll meet people who might see your arrival at their village as something akin to a mystical event – people for whom tourism has no meaning or monetary value. These constitute thrilling and immersive adventures.

Aside from learning more about a corner of the world that few would know about, and aside from learning more about your inner psyche and your purpose in life, this will also be a opportunity to hone your photographic skills while travelling with a professional photographer. As for the logistics, you do not have to worry about anything as you will be in capable hands: Victor has proven, during 20 years of writing about travel, to be a competent traveller who can go further than most of his peers.

These travels are typically planned several months in advance. Below are brief introductions of some planned trips: if you are interested in the travels below, please write to us for more details. Details of upcoming journeys, as well as prices, will be discussed individually with each interested participant.

Upcoming Geography Research Travels: 

Qiang-Tibetan Corridor

The so-called Qiang-Tibetan corridor consists of thousands of villages scattered along the Mingjiang River valley and its tributaries. The villages display cultural influences of the Qiang people – one of the world’s oldest ethnic group – and other peoples of Tibetan stock. The villages are built in steep slopes at elevations of around 3,000 metres, and these tight-knit villages, with their stone houses and old towers, surrounded by terraced fields, have remained isolated from the wider world. Such isolation has ensured their preservation: many inhabitants still wear old costumes and live according to traditional diktats. Villages display unique architecture, customs, and ways of life. Victor has already done some trips to the area, and he continues to do new research trips every summer in his quest to discover more authentic villages and map out the human geography of the Qiang-Tibetan peoples

Baikal New Routes

Lake Baikal isn’t only the deepest lake in the world, it’s also one of the remotest and least-developed regions on earth. It’s impossible to overstate that fact: take a boat along the length of the lake, which is 600kms long, and you will be mesmerised by the hundreds of kilometres of pure wilderness where human presence is non-existent. The lake is also a unique environment with a high proportion of endemic species and one of the richest self-contained ecosystems on earth. Add to this the varied coast of mountains, cliffs, beaches, and small villages of bright-coloured log buildings scattered along its shore, and you have one of those few places in the world that are truly unique. But travelling to Baikal is a major hassle exactly because of lack of infrastructure: no roads and no form of organised transport actually reaches large swathes of the shore, especially the purer parts of the shoreline. Victor is planning a research trip to some of the remoter corners of Lake Baikal, where he will trek and camp, or stay in the homes of local fishermen – in this trip, Victor will be travelling with Pepper Mountains representative in Baikal, a local tour leader who has intimate knowledge of the area and a network of contacts.

Across the Sahara

On a long caravan expedition, the Sahara desert reveals its haunting beauty. Victor’s planned trip – the second one – in the Sahara penetrates the heart of the world’s largest desert, visiting some of its remotest areas. The landscape is otherworldly – ranges of massive sand dunes, lakes fringed with date palms, coal-coloured mountains, plains of utter nothingness, disfigured and gnarled acacias flourishing in valleys, forests of palms and tamarisk and acacia in the oases, prehistoric rock art scattered throughout the mountains – it is like being in a different planet. Now join Victor on an epic journey to research many unseen places in the core parts of the world’s largest desert.